Matthew Storrs

totally agree there. if we all want to be 'professional' in the way we conduct our work, then simply butchering a tree because the clients wants us to goes against all principles. I understand that sometimes you have to make good of a bad situation(usually someones previous work) and thats fine but I don't consider mutilating a 'virgin' tree to lower than standard arb practise a professional approach. If they want a professional job then they can call me, If they just want some bloke with a chainsaw and jeans they can call someone else IMO

Really??? thats nearly 2.5million a year...

beef farmers will nearly always take it of you, but doubt they would ever pay for it.

Well I didn't say a lot of profit and hence would prefer to be around the £400-£450 mark but... the fact is I would still be making a profit after all expenses, wages, fuel, maintenance pricing in for machinery replacement (I don't do finance) at £300 and therefore I would be getting richer not poorer, albeit a lot slower then at £450, and at £750... well I wouldn't know what to do with all that money!!

I would be chuffed to get 400 for that oufit (similar to mine). TBH i think if you need £750 for two blokes a chipper, saws etc you must have a horrific outlay somewhere along the line and you would get laughed at in most cases down here (seems to be a case of rural areas expect less per day than urban areas?). I could do it for 300 and still make a profit (wouldn't include travel/accomodation costs tho).

Wire cored fliplines are generally used when you choging down a stem on spikes and you tend to be cutting closer then normally, for your cs38/39 you will be required to have a wire cored flipline for pole rescue or using a saw to section down a stem, However for general climbing, reductions etc, I (and i think most) use normal rope as a secondary positioning strop as you should always be tied in at two points whilst cutting, the work position strop serves this purpose. Even if you are not using a saw in a tree you will generally need a strop (5m of climbing type rope and a prussik will do fine) to help you reach awkward areas and for when you need to change over your mainline anchor point. If your after a budget steel flipline a 'swedish strop' is your best bet and is fine for spiking up stems etc, although they are rather clumsy for general work positioning aroung the canopy. Having said this I believe on your course they will teach you to use both ends of your rope to enable you to switch anchor points as you climb the tree, A 5m strop is still very useful though. Hope this helps.

Your very right mate, but I know Id prefer to quote 10 of those easy jobs @ £150 and get them all rather then 5 jobs @ £300 (busy fool I know) but your not just winning the job your winning the customer too and that leads to reccomendations and future work. Some of those reccomendations could lead to large complicated jobs where a higher price tag is justified ie dangerous/ roadside trees etc. Then I wouldn't be ashamed to put a high price on as they are paying for highly skilled work. But those £150 jobs are bread abd butter jobs and not to be sniffed at. waffle waffle:001_smile:

Its all relevant to you overheads as usual, but if you had two of those sized jobs in a day, at £150 each thats £300 done by 1pm. £300 should cover 2 blokes and a chipper for an easy day IMO. £300 to fell that birch is just another form of robbery (yes I know Im basing it of a picture!)

oh right, nice one, the sweets took me by surprise a bit I thought whoever was packing them must have put them in by accident. my girlfriend being the cynic (?) said I shouldn't eat them as I don't know where they had come from!!! I scoffed them anyway and very good too.

ha ha, i got fruit pastilles with my blades, execellant services from spectrum plant too

Looks fantastic, but isn't it going to be waaaay too much weight on the rear axle tho once loaded up? what shocks/ springs are you using on it?

What i was thinking, galv chassis and your on to a winner straight off.

depends if you like working on vehicles or not!!!

Am in the process of esembling a new good but basic lowering kit using 16mm rope, currently using the small cast ISC 13MM PULLEY . I have a budget of around £500 so far have decided on Stein rc2000, marlow bullrope / then the question of the pulley block, Any thoughts on the stainless steel ISC pulley 100kn or just go with the standard cast 150kn one. That comes to about £370, £100 on slings/ extra crabs then any left over might get me a cheeky stein pre tensioner pulley. Anyway any thoughts of this setup or would anyone reccomend different items/pulley block etc? cheers, Matt

I think its just that. TD5 are awesome if you don't have any problems, 300 tdi would probably be a much safer bet. tricky one...

£3500 if its done over 140k i would say

No really familiar with hi lux prices, but it looks in good knick, depends on millage. £4500?

although the TD5 is a brilliant tow-er....

For work I prefer the later 300 Tdi much more basic. still command hi prices tho, I paid £5500 3 years ago. hicap with 120k. don't regret a penny of it.

oh £8750. didn't see it was a classified, well I stand by my original £8000, mate of mine has had a bit of a gutful recently with that year TD5, mostly ECU, but I guess at that milleage anything that had gone wrong would have been sorted by now.

£7500-£8000, It seems in good nick, wouldn't be surprised if it got more.

Chipper is fine for towing, goes better in a straight line, if the trailers got a bit of weight you end up having to do a bit of shunting for big changes of direction. Iv pulled a 1.6 ton cherrypicker up a slippery slope with my 150vtr, did fine until i changed directions then started to spin a bit. definiatley worth doing tho. As for trailers you can get a decent used ifor plant for a grand if you look, Im going to take the bucket rest of mine and put a big tool box in its place 4x2 foot. somewhere dry to put the saws and climbing kit when chippers on the trailer, but im going to make it heavy duty enough so the lid can still be used as a bucket rest for my mini digger.

Interesting points, sounds like you experianced a cheapy if you ask me, the digbits grab I would say is almost over engineered and has greasable bushes and the grease nipples are recessed well so you couldn't knock them if you tried. Don't know about punching through the back plate but its pretty thick (10mm?) and if welded good and proper I can't see it failing. Although as has been said some sort of serated bits on the tines would help gripping logs better, could weld some on.

I just don't see the point in this vehicle? If its uneconomical to make the current defender then just scrap it (much as i hate to see it go) but isn't this new one just a rehash of the disco/rangerover/freelander family? I think there is a shortage of genuine 4x4 utility type vechicles and the new defender could do a lot worse to fill this void and really aim it at folks like tree surgeons/farmers/fencers etc etc who would really benefit from a 3.5 ton 4x4

Who on earth doesn't bother paying tax, you don't have a choice, you either earn money and you pay them or you don't earn and don't pay, Its not a case of just not bothering. Like I say tho if you arn't running a buisness you wont have many overheads and £80 is fine for just the labour. I charge the £110 as its the minimum day rate i can do to cover costs without passing on work. I don't have kids to raise but still have to pay standard tree surgery expenses ie insurance, machinery costs, so its all reletive.